The grandfather was about to take out almost $10,000 before he realized it was all fake.
KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — David Alleman was almost a victim of the grandparent scam that’s made its way around the country.
Alleman said when he got a call on Friday afternoon, it sounded like his granddaughter. The woman on the phone told him his granddaughter’s full name.
The woman told him she had been in a car accident and was in jail. She asked Alleman to call her ‘lawyer’, who had a New York phone number.
The ‘lawyer’ told Alleman his granddaughter had gotten into an accident with a woman who was seven months pregnant, and she had killed the baby. The ‘lawyer’ said bail had been set at $950,000 and Alleman would have to overnight $9,500 to a New York address to release his granddaughter.
“I was driving down Cedar Lane and going to the bank,” Alleman said. “I thought, oh God, can we just rewind this day and started over and say that this did not happen.”
When she came home, he realized it was a scam.
“I was elated. All we could do is hug and she was crying. I was crying. We were just so happy that it was not real,” Alleman said.
The scheme took…
